Three new Brent secondary free schools are due to take Year 7 pupils in September 2014, nine months away. Gateway (Wembley Central) and Gladstone (Dollis Hill) have yet to find premises and there is no sign of any work going on at Michaela's disused and derelict ex-college building next to the railway line at Wembley Park.

I have argued before on this blog that parents choosing these schools are buying a 'pig in a poke'. There are no previous Ofsted reports or examination results on which to base a choice or even current pupils to talk to. Apart from a skeleton staff there are just the worthy words of glossy brochures and websites on which to make a judgement.

It would help if there was confidence in the DfE's approval process but that is looking inadequate in the light of the update below from the Anti-Academies Alliance. Local authorities have little or no say so it is no use going to Brent Council for an opinion. This really leaves parents to do their own risk assessment so a close reading of the AAA report is recommended.

I will be moving an amendment to Green Party education policy at our Spring Conference committing the party to integrating academies and free schools into the local authority school system to ensure democratic accountability. An additional amendment will can for all children to be taught by a qualified teacher.

When Gove was elected in 2010 the first piece of legislation
rushed through Parliament allowed for the creation of ‘Free’ Schools alongside
the acceleration of the Academies programme.

From the outset education campaigners argued that this was a
potentially devastating development – undermining existing schools, breaking up
local democratic accountability, destroying teacher’s terms & conditions,
the list goes on and on.

Now that ‘free’ schools have existed for a couple of years
the gloss is starting to come off Gove’s shiny new toy. Below we look at the
developments in the ‘free’ schools. We aim to keep this piece up to date. If
you have information for us about developments in ‘free’ schools in your area
please let us know at office@antiacademies.org.uk

Discovery New School the
first to be closed.

Discovery New School (DNS) in Crawley, West Sussex, has been
ordered to close its doors on April 4. It was one of the first 24 ‘free’
schools to open in 2011.

In a damning letter to the school’s chairman of governors,
Chris Cook, Schools Minister Lord Nash said he was ending its funding
agreement.

Discovery New School was declared failing and placed in
special measures by the education watchdog Ofsted in May.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said it had been
monitoring the school’s progress and found it was not making the changes needed
to improve standards.

Lord Nash’s letter said that during a visit to Discovery New
School last month, Ofsted found that “no progress in the quality of teaching
and learning had been made since the original special measures judgement in
May”.

It added: “None of the school’s teachers were delivering
good lessons and all were still consistently inadequate or required
improvement.” LINK

Schools minister
intervenes in failing Al-Madinah free school

An Ofsted
report declares that the Al-Madinah Islamic school in Derby
is “in chaos” and has “not been adequately monitored or supported”.

The report says teachers at the faith school are
inexperienced and have not been provided with proper training.

Pupils are given the same work “regardless of their
different abilities” and the governing body is “ineffective”, according to the
report which was commissioned amid reports of irregularities at the school.

A letter from schools minister Lord Nash
to the chair of Al-Madinah’s governing body said the school’s trustees have
agreed to resign. Supervision of the school is to be handed to Barry Day, chief
executive of the Greenwood Dale foundation trust, sponsor of the Greenwood
academies trust, which operates 22 academiesLINK

‘Free’ school headteacher
with no qualifications, or teaching experience, quits

Annaliese Briggs was appointed principal of Pimlico primary
in central London in March by a charity set up by a government minister. She
had no teaching qualifications and little experience in running a school. The
new free school is sponsored by the Future Academies charity set up by Lord
Nash, a junior schools minister and one of Michael Gove‘s closest
allies.

Briggs, an English literature graduate from Queen Mary,
University of London, had worked as a junior member of staff at the rightwing
thinktank Civitas. She had no qualifications when appointed but was reportedly
trained in Wandsworth in preparation for the beginning of the school year. She
said that she would ignore the national curriculum and teach lessons “inspired
by the tried and tested methods of ED Hirsch Jr”, the controversial American
academic behind what he calls “content-rich” learning.

She quit after 6 months. Sources close to the academy say
she was finding it difficult to cope with the workload.LINK

IES Breckland head quit in November

Sherry Zand the Principal of IES Breckland School in Brandon
Suffolk resigned in November. This comes weeks after Zand fired six teachers at
IES Breckland who had only been appointed in September.

Since the start of the school year nearly a third of the
teaching staff have left IES. Things apparently got so bad at the school that
Zand herself was roped in to teach English before she went on sick leave.

IES English Schools Ltd who run IES Breckland under the only
profit making agreement to run a free school currently in place have moved fast
to bring in their own UK Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Peter Fyles as
Acting Principal.

Fyles is quoted
by BrandonSuffolk.com as saying in a letter to parents that the
search for a new permanent principal is already underway and that they would be
looking for an experienced principal to take the school forward.His choice of words is interesting as Zand had never been a Head or Deputy
prior to her appointment at IES. It looks like they intend to ensure her
replacement has more experience. LINK

Nishkam ‘free’ school fails Ofsted

The Nishkam primary ‘free school’ in Handsworth,
Birmingham’s first free school, opened in September 2011. It claims on
its website that ‘The primary purpose of the school is the drive for academic
excellence. This is exceptionally important in our aspirations for pupils to
exceed national standards.’

It rated Nishkam Primary as ‘requiring improvement’ in all
of the main areas – achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour and
safety of pupils, and leadership and management. The report concluded that the
school needed to raise standards because ‘there is not enough teaching which is
good enough to enable pupils to learn as quickly as they should’.
Inspectors were also critical of the school’s leadership, saying leaders and
governors did not have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and
weaknesses. LINK

Kings Science Academy facing fraud
investigation

OFSTED has been drawn into the row over a scandal hit free
school facing fraud allegations as an MP has demanded to know why a Government
probe into financial irregularities there was not mentioned in an inspection
report.

MP David Ward has criticised Ofsted for not mentioning the
investigation into the Kings Science Academy, in Bradford, despite the
education watchdog being aware of it when it inspected the school.

The free school has been in the spotlight since a leaked
report revealed that the Department for Education (DfE) had found it had
submitted fabricated invoices to the Government to claim just over £10,000 in
public money. LINK

‘Free’ schools programme costs 3 times more that
expected

The government’s flagship free school programme will cost at
least three times the sum originally allocated, the public spending watchdog
has found.

The National Audit Office said the scheme allowing groups to
set up state-funded schools would cost £1.5bn – the original Treasury grant was
£450.

The report says: “To date, the primary factor in
decision-making has been opening schools at pace, rather than maximising value
for money. The Department will need to exert more control over a rising cost
trend.”

The report also confirms that despite intense pressure on
school places in some areas, many free schools have opened in parts of the
country with no places pressure.

More than a quarter of all spending on school buildings –
£241m out of £950m – has been on free schools in areas with no need for extra
places forecast, the report says. LINK

‘Free’ schools performing worse than other schools

According to new figures from Ofsted, free schools are
actually underperforming compared to all schools inspected by the regulator.

According to an answer by Ofsted to a parliamentary question
from Jim Cunningham MP, 16 per cent of free schools were rated as ‘outstanding’
compared to 20 per cent of all schools.

56 per cent of free schools were also rated as good compared
to 58 per cent of all schools; and 19 per cent of free schools were rated as
‘satisfactory/requires improvement’ compared to 20 per cent of all schools.

8 per cent of free schools were rated as ‘poor’ by Ofsted,
compared to just 2 per cent of all schools.

This is particularly incredible since ‘free’ schools can
select their location, premises, staff and pupils. For ‘free’ schools to
perform worse than existing schools is an indictment of the policy. LINK

Unqualified teachers

A recent FOI request has shown that some ‘free’ schools are
employing large numbers of unqualified teachers.

Trinity School in Sevenoaks, Kent, which opened in September
2013, said seven of its nine teachers were unqualified.

At Discovery New School in Crawley, West Sussex, which was
ordered to close its doors on April 4 earlier this month (DEC), five of the
school’s seven teachers were unqualified, the figures showed.

Employing unqualified teachers is one of the ‘freedoms’ that
Michael Gove has encouraged. LINK

‘Free’ schools – a disaster for education

In September 2011, as the first 24 ‘free’ schools opened, we
published an article that included this comment:

“Because these schools are free from much of the
legislation that governs our schools serious questions have to be asked about
their governance. In many cases it is unclear who their financial backers are,
whether the Trustees have any relevant experience running a school, and in many
cases whether the Head’s have any suitable experience.”

We have been proven right. Here at the Anti Academies
Alliance we have no crystal ball. But as a coalition of education trade
unionists, councillors, campaigners and parents we know something about how our
schools should be run, and it’s not like this.

Monday, 30 December 2013

The end of the year is a good time to review our councillors' performance. The table below gives an overview of attendance at committees between July 8th and today. Some councillors have many more committees to attend than others and opposition councillors often complain that the present system gives them very little voice (and thus motivation to attend?) when decisions are rubber-stamped by the Labour only Executive and committees with in-built Labour majorities.

The Green Party has policy on this:

The Green Party believes that local
authorities run by
single party cabinets, or by directly elected mayors, are not in
the best
interests of local democracy. They take decision making powers
away from
councils as a whole and place them in the hands of a few
individuals, leading
to the disenfranchisement of those councillors who are not in the
ruling party
and the citizens they represent. We would therefore reintroduce
the committee
system across local government at all levels, which provides for
direct member
involvement in decision making.

The Greens also have a policy of recall if 40% or more registered electors request it.

The columns below in order list: Name, Party, Number of Required Attendances, Actual Attendances, Percentage Attendance and Additional Attendances at meetings where their attendance is not required. The latter are often meetings where a councillor represents the interests of his/her ward to the committee. Barry Cheese has the best record on that count.

Clearly committee attendance is only one measure and the amount of casework and how much of it is successful is important as well as the degree of visibility and engagement of each individual councillor with their residents.

Please note some of these non-attendances may include illness. Apologies for absence are included on the Council website - click on councillor's name.

Sunday, 29 December 2013

As the Farm Terrace alloment holders in Watford take legal action against Eric Pickles in a bid to save their plots LINK it seems a good time to review the state of allotments and allotment gardening in Brent.

The appointment of Vanessa Hampton as Food Growing and Allotment Officer and the updating of food growing strategies seems to have resulted in a much more proactive approach with issues such as uncultivated and over-grown plots being dealt with more efficiently.

In a letter to allottees Hampton reports:

91% of plots are let

99.6%of allotment plots are let or under offer

98.7% of plots are being cultivated (up from 92% last year)

There have been extensive clearane to bring over 70 plots overgrown with invasive weeds back into cultivation

From April 2013, over 15 metric tonnes of rubbish was clear from allotment sites

She worked on sites with volunteers including 120 young adults from the Challenge Network, the Wembley Stadium Geen Team and Veolia Environmental Services

Ongoing renovation of council-owned sheds and drainage improvement works at various sites

Vanessa is to be applauded on the progress she has made in a short time and it has been good to see visible progress on my own site at Birchen Grove. Previously uncultivated plots were left for a long time giving weeds and brambles a chance to get a real hold on them, making it harder to bring them back to cultivation and spreading weeds seeds all over neighbouring plots.

An uncultivated plot at Birchen Grove

Following in the steps of the gardening classes that have take place on the Metropolitan Housing allotments on Chalkhill Estate, Vanessa Hampton is running free master classes on 'Preparing Your Plot for Cultivation' for new or inexperienced tenants to help them 'get started on plot clearance and digging with confidence'.

She will show tenants how to transform their plot from 'grass to a productive food-growing area'. The classes are open to any plot holder, irrespective of where their plot is located are available on two dates at two different venues. They will be held regardless of weather conditions.

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